Policy

You'll Drink What New York Tells You to Drink: Breast Milk Edition

New York City hospitals to keep baby formula locked away.

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Already leading one of the most aggressive "pro-breast milk" campaigns in the country, New York City has announced that it will now track usage of infant formula. In the latest salvo in the push to turn breastfeeding from a healthy option to a public mandate, hospitals will keep formula locked away, treating it more like contraband than basic infant sustenance. 

Women who have heard the advantages of breastfeeding and have decided—for whatever personal reason—to feed their newborns formula, will now have to justify their reasoning before they are given access to it.

When, exactly, exercising a personal right about what to do for your child (and with your own body) became a public statement, open to the city's files and others' judgment, is unclear.